Lance Hoffmeyer wrote:
> I have collected data using a questionaire with 20 rating scales. The
> respondents were asked to use tick marks to rate the answers so there were
> no anchors. Some people have minimums of '0' and maximums of '10' while
> others have minimums of '6' and maximums of '68'. I wish to do a factor
> analysis so I need to get everything on the same scale. Initially, I thought
> of row standardizing the data. After thinking about it I am not completely
> certain this solves the scale problem. My first question is whether row
> standardization puts all respondents data onto the same scale? The second
> question is what would be another technique or a better technique to get all
> data onto the same scale?
Lance:
If you were going to standardize I would think you want to standardize the
variables (columns) not the subjects (rows). What sort of factor analysis are you
planning that makes you think you need to standardize first? If you plan to
factor analyze a correlation matrix then there is no need to standardize your
rating scales before hand. If you are planning to factor analyze a covariance
matrix then you would not want to standardize the rating scales. So, either way I
can't see the benefit of standardizing here.
Chuck
----------------------------------------------
Chuck Cleland
Institute for the Study of Child Development
UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
97 Paterson Street
New Brunswick, NJ 08903
phone: (732) 235-7699
fax: (732) 235-6189
http://www2.umdnj.edu/iscdweb/
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